reaching the world for Jesus Christ

Ricky Sinclair: Intimacy with God

The Year of the Favor of the Lord

Intimacy with God

Luke 10:27

We must first understand that God loves us and wants our heart.We are successful because we have God, not because we have this or that. Our success is based in God, not on things.Stop looking for success in the world you’ll only find pressure, disappointment and burn out.Receive God’s love and give it back to Him.Now you are successful and nothing else matters because you have God.

Religion vs Relationship

Religion

Religion is a form of spirituality that is rooted in what one does outwardly, rather than what one believes inwardly at the heart level.

Religious people rely on what they do as a means to find favor with God.

Because so much energy and effort is exerted toward external behavior, the heart becomes spiritually weak and bored – burned out, basically dissatisfied with God, disillusioned. This leads to compromising, disregard for truth, finding pleasure in sin, ending in religious hypocrisy.

Relationship

God is seeking for true, spiritual worship from us in order for us to relate to Him properly (John 4:23-24).

Intimacy with God

It is how we receive.

Cultivate

Grow in our awareness, perception and experience of God’s affection for us.

Intimacy awakens and sustains our love back to Him.

Intimacy moves us from conceptual understanding of God’s love to an experiential one.

Aspects to Intimacy

Knowledge – A growing understanding of the love of God. “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3).”

Choices – Making a conscious decision to obey God.“For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments (I John 5:3).”

Feelings – Enjoying the feelings of God’s love. “You give themdrink from the river of your pleasures (Psalms 36:8).”

What is our image of God

Our image of God is what we project He’s like to others. What is our perception and experience of Him?

Is your God mostly mad and sad?Or is He mostly glad?

Do you feel you are a sinner trying to love God or a lover of God who struggles with sin?

As we receive God’s love and understand His glorious nature and sovereign leadership we learn to trust and rest in Him, our image and perception of God will be right, allowing us to walk in God’s fullness for our lives.

Today is the Day!I encourage you to let go of the world, really seek God with all of your heart.Without God you will go through the motions but will be empty.You will burn out and become disillusioned.Remember, life is about God.Put Him first and everything else will be added – Matthew 6:33.